Death threats, physical violence and disturbing comments: Dahia Khellaf, this woman killed by her partner in 2019 after a separation, had explained to the police a year before the tragedy that her husband had threatened her with scissors and was suffering probably schizophrenia.
What there is to know
- The start of the coroner’s investigation reveals that in August 2018, Dahia Khellaf filed a complaint against her husband, Nabil Yssaad. The couple had two young boys and lived in the Pointe-aux-Trembles area of Montreal.
- A court order prohibiting Nabil Yssaad from approaching or communicating with his ex-partner was imposed in December 2019.
- A few days later, Dahia Khellaf and her two children were found dead in their home. Nabil Yssaad allegedly killed them before killing himself in Joliette.
The comments made by Dahia Khellaf to the police when she filed a complaint against her husband in 2018 were reported by Detective Sergeant Caroline Raza during the coroner’s public inquest into the death of Mme Khellaf and his children aged 4 and 2, Adam and Aksil.
It is likely Nabil Yssaad, the spouse of the mother and father of the two boys, who allegedly committed this triple murder in December 2019. The 46-year-old man then killed himself by throwing himself from the sixth floor of the psychiatric department of a hospital in Joliette.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The victims were found in their residence in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
Detective Sergeant Raza, then in charge of the domestic violence case, read to the coroner Me Andrée Kronström’s statementsme Khellaf to officers of the Montreal City Police Department. The 42-year-old woman first refers to an event that occurred on August 24, 2018: her husband tried to twist her arm and bite her hand to snatch documents she was holding.
1er August of the same year, after an argument linked to their break-up, he pretended to agree to leave the home. But he doesn’t go away. “He refuses to leave. He took a scissor and came towards me saying: I’m going to pierce your eye,” said M.me Khellaf at the time. She adds that her husband accuses the neighbors of “casting spells on them” and sees them as enemies. “I strongly suspect he suffers from schizophrenia. He’s crazy and does weird things. He does not look me in the eyes when he communicates,” continues the mother in her statement to the neighborhood station.
She says she fears for her safety, but not that of her children.
Worried neighbors
“If I had known, I would have called the police”: Latifa Sail, neighbor of Dahia Khellaf, explained with emotion that Nabil Yssaad continued to prowl around the family home despite a court order which prohibited him from doing so .
“Why didn’t anyone tell me that this gentleman didn’t have the right to come here? I saw him the Thursday before the murder. I think the danger was already there,” explained Mme Sail to the coroner.
Nabil Yssaad continued to appear in front of his partner’s home. He often hung out at the park near the house, she said.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM NABIL YSSAAD’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Nabil Yssaad
In 2018, the neighbor received a visit from a police officer. He asks Mme Sail if she has ever heard arguing or shouting. Worried, she knocked on Dahia Khellaf’s door the next day.
“She started telling me that her husband suffered from a mental illness. He would wake up at night and start screaming. She told me that sometimes he would be aggressive and start yelling. One time they had an argument outside and he threatened her, telling her that next time he was going to kill her. »
She then confides to her neighbor that she does not think he would harm the children.
Dahia Khellaf had vaguely mentioned to Mme Sail wants to separate from her husband. “But she didn’t want to separate her children from their father,” explained the neighbor.
Nabil Yssaad was accused in a domestic violence case following a complaint from Mme Khellaf in 2018, indicated Jonathan Perron, detective sergeant at the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), during his testimony before the coroner on Monday. He was not allowed to come to his partner’s home or workplace or communicate with her, according to an order issued on December 4, 2019, a few days before the triple murder.
Latifa Sail and her husband, however, noticed the man’s “bizarre” behavior: he talked to himself in the street and sometimes insulted his neighbor. “I started to be afraid of him, because I told myself that if he threatens his wife, I don’t want to talk to him,” she says.
“He was not normal”
Wahiba Menad, a friend of Nabil Yssaad who worked with him before the tragedy, explained that she had to cut ties with him. His statement to police was reviewed Tuesday morning.
“He was a very good friend, but he wanted more. And I didn’t want a romantic relationship with him,” the woman explains to investigators.
Nabil Yssaad insisted: he wanted a romantic relationship with her. She refuses once again and explains that she doesn’t want any more contact.
“He had a hard time understanding that. The only way was to tell him: don’t contact me anymore. He didn’t understand otherwise,” says M.me Menad.
Nabil Yssaad confides in Mme Menad on his marital problems and the fact that his wife was preventing him from seeing his two boys. “According to him, his wife was depressed and aggressive with him. He said she had filed a false complaint of domestic violence. »
She had no information about his mental health, but found it strange that he had become attached to her in such a short time. “To fixate on a person like that, I didn’t think it was normal. I had the feeling that he was going through a difficult time or that he was not normal. »
She explains to him towards the end of their friendship that he should no longer contact her. “I told him that if he didn’t stop, I was going to file a complaint for harassment,” M explains to investigators.me Menad.
The public inquiry is expected to last a week and continues Tuesday afternoon.